MISCELI^NEOUS. 451 



man to become bankrupt, are equally certain. If a horse can trot in 2:10 

 or better, it is reasonably certain that he will make money for his owner, 

 and it matters not how homely or unsound he may be; but if the horse 

 has bad looks and unsoundness, and also lacks speed, he will be unprofit- 

 able on the track, and cannot be sold at a profitable price on the market, 

 while, if used in the stud, his undesirable qualities are perpetuated. On 

 the other hand, if the horse has moderate speed, but is sound, handsome 

 and stylish, with a shapely head and neck, a straight, strong back, straight 

 croup, muscular quarters and stifles, well set legs, possesses good all- 

 around true action, and has abundant endurance, he is almost certainly 

 a profitable investment. This is the kind of light horse which the market 

 wants and will pay for. If of the roadster type, he sells well as a driver ; 

 if more on the heavy harness order, as a carriage horse. 



"The occurrence of trotting-bred horses of the finest conformation 

 is by no means uncommon; it is so frequent indeed that these animals 

 supply not only the demand for roadsters, but the principal part of the 

 fine city trade in carriage horses, and are conspicuous winners at the 

 horse shows. The demand for such horses has been so keen that dealers 

 have resorted to the pernicious practice of buying mature stallions, many 

 of them valuable breeders, and castrating them, to be sold later as car- 

 riage horses. The famous Lord Brilliant, three times winner of the 

 Waldorf-Astoria gig cup at Madison Square Garden, is a notable instance 

 of this practice ; Lonzie, a noted Chicago show horse, is another, and the 

 horse purchased for the department experiments (Carmon) narrowly 

 escaped the same fate. This practice cannot be too strongly condemned. 

 There is reason to believe that if these stallions were used as the nucleus 

 of a breed the type would in time become fixed and their blood be saved 

 to the country. On the other hand, if steps are not taken to mould the 

 blood of these horses into one breed, and preserve the blood lines which 

 produce them, an irreparable loss to the industry will result. The first 

 step should be to select foundation stock strictly according to type ; 

 the next to study the lines of breeding which produce these horses. 

 To a certain extent they are accidents of breeding, but there is little 

 doubt that certain families show a greater tendency in this direction 

 than others. For example, the descendants of Alexander's Abdallah, 

 Harrison Chief, the Morgans and the Clay family have been more or 

 less notable in this respect. Further, certain sires are known to pro- 

 duce handsome and marketable horses with regularity. 



GOOD PROGRESS MADE. 



"In view of these facts, the department decided to undertake the de- 

 velopment of a breed of carriage horses on an American foundation as 



